A case study of SDGS in low-income countries.
A story of Kenya.
Author Mugambi Paul
Disabilities is no longer a matter of concern to persons with disabilities, but has been expanded to include people and other interested parties working to raise awareness about the rights, issues and abilities of persons with disabilities, and their potential to become a productive force in the society. People with disabilities are less fortunate than others in terms of health status, educational attainment and employment opportunities, and are therefore poorer than other citizens, where some studies indicate that 4 out of every 5 persons with disabilities experience from poverty.
According to Kipra 2022 poverty levels in Kenya have increased from 38 % in 2013 to 63 % in 2021. For Kenyans with disabilities numbers will be extremely high.
There are several reasons for this, including the lack of services available, inadequate social protection measures, high unemployment rates for Kenyans with disabilities, coupled with covid impact for them and the many obstacles they face in their daily lives. People with disabilities constitute the largest minority in low-income nations like Kenya 80% of them are of working age.
Given that the rights of persons with disabilities cannot be ignored, the Sustainable Development Agenda of 2030 states that disabilities cannot be a cause or justification for the inability to benefit from development programs or the enjoyment of human rights. The framework for the goals of sustainable development includes 7 goals explicitly referring to disabilities, and 6 other target people who are living at risk situations, including persons with disabilities. These goals address key areas of development such as education, decent work, social protection, disaster resilience and mitigation, sanitation, transportation and non-discrimination. The new sustainable development agenda is specifically committed to promoting actions to facilitate access for persons with disabilities to public places and facilities, technology and services in urban and rural areas, on equal level with others.
Needless to say, even when policies are robust and comprehensive in upholding the need for disability inclusion
across all international development projects, there is still often a gap between policy and
practice.
Challenges:
• In the field of education, persons with disabilities are facing barriers because of the lack of inclusive schools based on international standards, and the spread of illiteracy among them due to the lack of specialized cadres who are capable of providing the required education, as a result of negligence in the role of the states who are not doing their duty. Several studies by non-state actors in the low-income nations indicate this phenomenon [world bank 2020, IDA 2021 [
In the area of employment, the majority of persons with disabilities agonize from unemployment, including those with high qualifications, as a result of the non-activation of the article related to the allocation of 5% of public sector jobs according to most constitutions. and 5% of private sector jobs, for instance Kenyan article 54 of the constitution. According tot Kenyan public service it’s still below 2 % [standard November 2021]in I opine its Hight time low-income legislators introduced penalties for both public and private sectors who do not meet these obligations.
A major barrier to realizing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for persons with disabilities is a scarcity of disaggregated data on disability. This prevents the development of appropriate and effective disability-inclusive policy.
I observe, the crisis of the lack of political will to meet the demands of persons with disabilities remains the cornerstone of the aggravation of that problem.
• In the area of training and empowerment programs, the State does not provide training and literacy programs in order to reduce the spread of ignorance and empower persons with disabilities. Most technical institutes do not even recognize the certification of persons with different impairments. Persons with developmental disabilities, blind and deaf blind are victims of the Kenyan education system.
In the area of accessibility, persons with disabilities continue to suffer from the lack of access to public facilities on the equal bases with other citizens. In additional to that, these persons are unable to exercise their full right to move and travel around, because of the lack of accessible means of public and private transportation. Moreover, the roads and sidewalks are not accessible and cannot be used by these persons. All of this constitute many obstacles to the implementation of their right to move and be independent. Although some efforts are being made by road authorities to improve but they highly need to involve persons with disabilities and their organizations to ensure more accessible built environment is achieved.
Ala in all we need to lay emphasis nothing about us with out us and no one should be left behind.
Kenyans with disability want to be treated decently, not capriciously. They don't want to beg. The social protection is supposed to be there to help them
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The views expressed here are for the author and do not represent any agency or organization.
Mugambi Paul is a public policy, diversity, inclusion and sustainability expert.
Australian Chief Minister Award winner
“Excellence of making inclusion happen”
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